FAAMA: Inside the U.S. School Allergy Law

The following article was published in early 2011. The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network is now the FARE organization.

On January 4, 2011, President Barack Obama passed the Food Safety Modernization Act. Tucked into this sweeping act as Section 112 is FAAMA, the long-awaited Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act.

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network led the lobby for FAAMA, which will result in voluntary allergy management guidelines for schools across the United States. FAAN started pressing for the legislation back in 2005, when it held the first of three Kids’ Congresses on Capitol Hill. [Update: the CDC guidelines were released in 2013.]

Allergic Living Editor Gwen Smith interviews Chris Weiss, FAAN’s vice president of Advocacy and Government Relations, about FAAMA and what the guidelines will mean for American students at risk of anaphylaxis.

Q&A: WHAT FAAMA WILL MEAN

Gwen Smith: To start, after five long years of lobbying, how did FAAMA finally get passed?

Chris Weiss: Senator [Christopher] Dodd from Connecticut, early in 2010, was able to insert FAAMA into the larger Food Safety Bill. The reason he did that – and it was very smart on his part – was because Congress was pretty busy last year and the chance of Congress considering FAAMA as a standalone bill became sort of unlikely. The chance of Congress considering the Food Safety Bill, however, became probable. And so Dodd was able to insert FAAMA into the larger Food Safety Bill [officially known as the Food Safety Modernization Act].

GS: Can you explain to the food allergy community: What does this new law mean?

CW: It simply calls on the federal government to create food allergy management guidelines for the schools. This is a tremendous thing because, to date, there has been no guidance from the federal level at all on food allergies. A few states have published guidelines, some school districts have done so, some individual schools have done so. But there was nothing coming down from the federal level.

GS: And why is that so important Chris?

CW: Well basically because it gives any school in the U.S. – in any state, in any town, in any city – it gives them something to look to if they need help managing students with food allergies. In essence, we sort of killed 50 birds with one stone by passing this law. Any federal guidance [in the guidelines] would be applicable to all 50 states.

GS:Allergic Living is getting some specific questions such as: “But I live in New York state and there’s a law, or in Massachusetts, we already food allergy guidelines in the state. How will FAAMA work in conjunction with what’s already in place in those states?

CW: This is a good question. There are about 12 states that already have published food allergy management guidelines for schools. Roughly 12, give or take one. If you look at all of those documents, they’re essentially the same. They’re 99 per cent similar.
Whatever comes out of the federal government as a result of FAAMA will likely be similar to these existing state documents.
So it’s not as if the federal guidance will trump the state guidance. It’s not as if the state guidance will trump the federal guidance. Everything is going to be essentially the same content. [CW agrees that federal guidelines will be reinforcement for a state law.]